241: How Successful Women Decide Which Events Are Worth It

Welcome to the She Thinks Big podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross, coach, speaker, life balance architect, and strategic thought partner for high-achieving women who want to think differently, lead confidently, and create success on their own terms.

As an entrepreneur myself and the bestselling author of She Thinks Big, here's what I know: You've been at this for a while, but somehow you can still feel stuck in the day-to-day. And running your business like a to-do list does not fulfill the vision.

So around here, we're not about more hustle, we're about smarter strategy, bolder thinking, and leading a business that fits your life. Each week, you'll hear the mindset shifts, real-world tools, and CEO-level conversations that help you reclaim your time, grow with intention, and elevate your leadership. Now, let's dive in.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the She Thinks Big podcast. So I have got something really good for you today. Really good. This is a topic that has come up actually three times in the last four days. I'm recording this on a Thursday, but since Monday, three different people have asked me about this topic. I'm going to guess if three people in three days have asked me about it, you've probably thought about it too.

You've probably gotten those glossy invites in the mail that come as big postcards, the must-attend conference. You most certainly have received it via email, the life-changing workshop invite, or the networking opportunity of the year. You may see yet another webinar pop up in your feed today. You're going to ask yourself, "Do I register for this? Do I sign up? Is it worth my time, money, energy, and the people power it's going to take for me to go?"

This could be just an hour-long webinar that you're doing from your desk, or it could be a four-day trip across the country. I'm going to guess that you have been like me and some of these clients that I've been coaching, you've debated flying across the country and booking a hotel and stepping away from work and life, which is sometimes the harder part, or orchestrating your life so that you could have the three or four days to attend.

You've wondered if the connections you might make when you go or the knowledge that you might gain will outweigh the time you'll be away from the client and family and other commitments. Or will it outweigh or make up for the cost, not just the ticket price, not just the registration fee, but the flights, the meals? Really, I think, most importantly, the mental bandwidth it takes to prepare and follow through the mental bandwidth you know that you have to have in order to make it worth it.

So today on She Thinks Big, we are talking about how to decide with confidence which events, conferences, or even webinars deserve your time, energy, and money, and which ones you can skip without guilt. I'm going to share the exact decision filters I use, plus some stories from my own experience, including why I created my own events at the beginning of Andrea Liebross Coaching seven years ago, why I keep showing up at certain local events, and I'm going to tell you about the time I flew all the way to Spokane, Washington to watch another coach in action, and why being close to an event that's in my own backyard doesn't automatically make it worth attending for me.

So let's dive in. When I first started my business, this was in 2018, I wasn't waiting for an invitation to the right event. I decided to make my own. Now, I will preface this. This was after I waited for an invitation to the right event for about probably three or four months. The right event there at that point was going to be an event where I would be able to share what I was doing, to practice saying and explaining what I was doing and what my business was all about, and to get in front of people who needed to hear my message.

I wanted speaking practice. I wanted to be able to hone my messaging, and I wanted to be able to do this in front of people who needed to hear my message that could potentially lead to some of my first clients. Those early events taught me that sometimes the best opportunities are the ones that you create for yourself.

Now, around that same time, I also started attending Network of Women in Business events. Network of Women in Business is local to Indianapolis, I think. There might be some other chapters out there. It's called NOWIB. I started attending these events, not because I thought I'd walk out with a stack of the ideal client contacts, but because part of NOWIB is that they give you a platform to speak on.

I wanted that practice. I wanted the reps. They had multiple meetings across the city throughout each month. There was a south side and a north side and a lunchtime and a breakfast. So you could go to all of these. If you put in your name ahead of time, you could be the featured speaker at that meeting. It was only 10 minutes. You only had 10 or 15 minutes to speak. But by joining NOWIB, I got the reps in sharing my message in front of real people.

Then there was the time a couple of years ago that I flew to Spokane, Washington for a conference with a coach named Jodi Moore. That is pretty far. Spokane, Washington. I had never been there. It's no joke getting there. My goal in going to that conference, my number one goal, was to see how she did it, how she ran her day-long event, how she engaged the audience, how she delivered her content. I went with the mission, and that made all the difference.

Then there are the times I've gone to Dallas because the content that was being presented was exactly what I needed at that stage of my business. Then there was the time I went to Phoenix for a conference for the people. It was a chance to connect with specific entrepreneurs and industry leaders I wanted to build relationships with.

Then this fall, I'm putting my own event decision filter to work. I am going to an event called Rally. It happens to be held in Indianapolis, but it attracts a worldwide audience. They call it a massive innovation conference that brings together thought leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs across industries. I'm attending because it draws an audience far beyond Indy. It gives me a chance to make some high-value connections, and it's right in my backyard, and I can do this all without major travel.

I'm also attending the High Point Market in North Carolina. It is the largest home furnishings trade show in the world. I do have a significant amount of clients who are in this home furnishings industry. I have the chance to speak there on two different stages. That is an opportunity for me to get in front of audiences. I'm also going to use it as a platform to connect with designers and vendors, and media contacts. It's a powerhouse event for visibility and positioning.

I'm also going to attend the Sun Shading Expo, which is a worldwide event, happens to be in Indianapolis this fall. It's a niche industry event. While I am not in the manufacturing of sunshades business, and my clients don't necessarily happen to be in that business, I'm going to be speaking there. It's a great example of how getting in front of different audiences can expand my reach and create some unexpected opportunities.

So this is me speaking on a stage inside a big convention hall. That's different than on a stage at High Point. That's different than at a small group networking event. I'm also attending my own coach's conference in New Hampshire, because even as a coach, I believe in being coached. Going to this event in New Hampshire refuels me. It challenges my thinking. It connects me with peers who understand the stage of business I'm in now.

So I just wanted to share those four things that I'm going to, just in the next, between now and the middle of November. I'm recording this in mid-August. In the next three months, I'm going to all four of those things. Two require out-of-state travel, two don't. But I've put them through my decision filter to help me decide if this is something that warrants my time, money, energy, and attention, and people power, because there are people that need to help get me there or that need to prepare and help me prepare to show up in the way I want to show up.

So here's what I hear from many of my clients. What's the problem that we face when making these decisions? I think we often face three big challenges when it comes to events.

Challenge number one, there are too many choices. I mean, we've got in-person conferences, we've got free webinars, and everything in between. Your calendar could be full 24/7 if you let it. If you let it. So that's the first challenge, too many choices.

Second challenge is FOMO, fear of missing out on the one room where the magic happens. Should I be there? I debated on this Rally Indy thing. It's not called Rally Indy. I'm calling it Rally Indy because it's in Indy, but Rally. I debated, and there's a little FOMO if I don't go to this. There's fear of missing out on being in the room where the magic happens. Okay. So that is something I had to work through, and I decided to allow that FOMO to be a real thing and to say yes to going. All right. So FOMO is a second challenge.

Then the third challenge, which is where we're really going to dig in today, is a lot of women I talk to have no clear decision filter to make these decisions. They're making choices based on hype or convenience instead of alignment or ROI. Here's a truth I've learned.

Just because an event is close to home doesn't mean it's worth it. Sometimes proximity makes us say yes without asking the bigger questions like, "Is this the right room for me right now?"

So I'm going to give you now three decision filters. If you have a pencil, this is the time to take it out or open that notes app on your phone or wherever you write down things that might be helpful later. Because I want you to really embrace and decide to use these three filters. All right, here we go. Ready? Number one, alignment. Let's go back to alignment. Does attending serve my current goals?

First of all, I think the first thing here is what are your current goals? Do you know them? Have you gone through creating some type of business plan for the year or the quarter that spells out your goals? If you haven't, I have something that can help you with that. Come join me in my activator, which is the Vision to Action Intensive I do, where I help you turn your vision into action steps.

It really gets you acting on your vision, because we turn your vision into goals and then your goals into action steps. So alignment, asking yourself, does it serve my current goals? You need to know your goals. So I'm going to put the link to the activator also in the show notes. You need to get into my next activator. I do once a month. It's like a mini coaching intensive. You need to be there.

Here are three questions for alignment: Is the audience relevant to my ideal client or collaborators? That's a question you can ask to assess this alignment. Is the audience relevant to my ideal client or collaborators? Is the timing right for my stage of business?

When I went to Spokane, Washington, it was right for me because I was there to see how she did it. I was in the stage of my business where I was about to do my own thing. I went about six months or so before I did She Thinks Big Live, which was a day-long event in Indianapolis that I held for my audience, or I created my own audience, but I wanted to see how she did hers. So the timing was right for that stage of my business.

Then the third question to ask yourself in terms of alignment is, Is this content that I can get anywhere else? Is there anything unique about being in this room? Is the content unique? Or can I get it in my own backyard? Can I get it by watching a video? What's going to make the content special?

So those are three questions that you can ask yourself to assess, to put it through decision filter number one, which is alignment. All right, decision filter number two, visibility. Will I have meaningful ways to be seen? Can I speak? Can I moderate? Can I host? Can I talk? Or is there any time allowed for me to connect?

Is there a VIP or speaker networking element to it? Is there something like that where I can connect with the other speakers in the room? Do they sell VIP tickets, so there's a VIP audience that wants, and can I get in on the VIP ticket? Can I get in on something different and special where I'll have direct contact with whoever I'm going there to see?

Number three, can I connect with key people before the event even starts? Am I going to be able to know who's going? Can I make a plan to connect with them while I'm there? Or are they going to share the contact info for attendees? Is that available ahead of time?

So decision filter number two is visibility. Will I have meaningful ways to be seen that are relevant to what I'm looking for? If you're not looking to speak or moderate or host, then that's not your question. But if you are, let's put it through the filter. If you're looking to create more connections, is there a VIP or networking element?

If you're trying to target certain people, can I connect with these key people before the event even starts? Assess visibility. There's nothing worse than going to something and walking out of it thinking, "I didn't talk to one person." That's not good. That's not good.

All right, third decision filter, ROI. Will I walk away with tangible or intangible value? When we talk about tangible ROI from attending an event or a webinar, are you going to get or obtain any leads or contracts or partnerships from being in the room? The intangible ROI. Are you gaining new skills? Is this a credibility move? Is it going to position you for something bigger and better later?

I always define for myself my event break-even point before I go, like how many connections or contracts will make this worth it? I was exchanging messages with one of my clients this week who was asking, "Should I go to," and it was a flight, I feel like it was Denver, "Should I go to Denver to this conference? It's going to have lots and lots of industry leaders there that I could make some valuable connections with." But it's only three weeks away.

So we kind of assessed what's the break-even point. Well, the break-even point would be, could she gain one new client from going? She said, "Yeah, maybe, but I could probably gain 10 if I had a longer runway to prepare, and I could really dig into who was going to be there." What we decided in the end was to table it for this year, but put it on the radar for next year with a longer lead time so that she can get a greater ROI.

That was like, what's her event break-even point? Am I going to have enough tangible leads or contracts or partnerships coming out of it? While she would have some, even if she went three weeks from now, not as many as she knows she could create if she had more runway. So she decided not to go.

So these filters, these three decision filters: alignment, (Does this serve my current goals?), visibility, (Will I have meaningful ways to be seen?), and ROI, (Will I walk away with tangible or intangible value?), these filters apply as much to webinars as they do to in-person events, as they do to things that require getting on a plane.

Online events still cost you time, attention, and energy. Things around the corner still cost you those things too. So the same filters apply regardless of whether it's around the corner, online, or a plane ride away.

Next, keep your pencil out. I want to share how I think four things you need to consider in order to make the most of any event. This is something that I'm actively doing, and my team is actively doing right now as we prepare for those four things I mentioned.

There's the pre-event prep. This is where you reach out to attendees or speakers ahead of time. You make your presence known before you arrive. You decide if bringing a friend or a colleague will help you feel more confident or if it might keep you from meeting new people. You look at what else you can do while you're in the city. Could you meet with a client? Could you visit a potential vendor? Could you tour a venue? How do you maximize this trip?

Also, as part of pre-event prep, you figure out how you want to show up. I will be honest. I have hired a stylist to help me figure out what I'm actually going to wear when I'm on these stages. Yeah, I have. It's worth it. I don't want to put the mental energy into it, but I know it's worth putting some energy into it. So that is why I am outsourcing that and having someone help me in the pre-event prep.

She sometimes says, "How you show up or what you look like, your style is your business card." So I want to show up looking like I got my act together, feeling great, feeling branded, like I'm Andrea Liebross, this is who I am. So there's the pre-event prep, reaching out to attendees and speakers ahead of time, making my presence known before I arrive, deciding if I'm going to bring someone with me. Is that going to be a help or a hindrance? Or is it going to prevent me from meeting new people if I already have a buddy?

I'm looking for what else I can do in these cities. My client that was deciding about the thing three weeks from now, she decided that if she brought one of her colleagues with her, one of their teammates, they could even do a better job, and she didn't have enough time to get that going. So that's another reason we tabled it.

So there's the pre-event prep. Then there's the go in with the mission. You need to know exactly what you're there to get out of it. Maybe it's meeting one specific person. Maybe it's learning how someone else runs their event. Maybe it's practice on a different stage. Maybe it's some great photos. You just want to take some photos. That's good too.

Go in with the mission. I always say you need to sit in the car before you go in or sit quietly at your desk before you turn on the webinar. Know what your mission is. Then the third thing that you need to do to make the most of any event is you need to turn your mission into some on-site strategies. This is like turning your vision into some goals and some action steps.

Be intentional with conversations. Document your experience and avoid spending the whole time in the corner with people you already know. Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. My husband and I attend an event that relates to his work every year. It's every year. I've been doing it for 29 years. It's every year.

You can tell from my change in the tone of my voice, not my most fun thing. But he has a mission when we go to this that he needs to talk to four specific people. We have a strategy on how he's going to do that. I'm like his guide through the evening. I keep him on track. I keep the eye on the prize. I help him fulfill his mission of talking to these four people.

Sometimes the strategy is I have to say to him, "Hey, let's go look at the silent auction table. So nice talking to you, Mr. Smith. Hey, Rob, let's go look at this silent auction table," which is going to pull him away from Mr. Smith and get him onto the next person he needs to talk to. But by having me there, it makes it a lot easier. I'm just the one that wants to go look at the silent auction, and he's being a great spouse and coming with me.

All right, so what's your on-site strategy? Know it, be intentional. Document what you want to do and avoid spending the whole time in the corner with the people you already know.

And then the fourth thing that you need to do to make the most out of any event is the post-event follow-up. Strike while the iron's hot. Connections turn into contracts and clients through consistent follow-up. Sometimes I say conversations create connection, which create contracts or clients, but you need to have consistent follow-up, not just wishful thinking that that's going to happen.

Now I have another whole process that I teach people on how to turn a stack of business cards into paying clients. I think we should do another podcast episode on that. So backing up, how to make the most of any event. You've got to do some pre-event prep. You've got to go in with the mission. You've got to have some on-site strategies, and you have to do post-event follow-up.

Now, my friends, the event isn't the investment. The event itself isn't the investment. You have to have a mindset shift and recognize that you are the investment. The ROI doesn't come from the lanyard or the name badge. The ROI doesn't come from the hotel ballroom or the virtual chat box. It comes from how you show up, how you connect, and what you do after the event ends.

So I'm going to say that again. The ROI doesn't come from the lanyard or the name badge or the hotel ballroom or the virtual chat box. The ROI comes from how you show up, how you connect, and what you do after the event ends. I am a firm believer in that. This is where I spend a lot of my coaching time. Yes, we go through the decision filter, but then once they've made that decision and say they're going, when we're really zooming in on ROI, I really want to dig into what they're thinking. How do they want to show up? How do they want to connect? What are they going to do after?

So here's your homework. I want you to create your one-page event decision filter. I've given you the three decision filters: alignment, visibility, and ROI. But I want you to create your personalized version of this. I want you to ask yourself, number one, what are your current one to two big business goals? Number two, what's your ideal audience profile? Number three, what's your ROI break-even number? I want you to run every conference, event, or webinar through that filter before you say yes.

I'm always happy to chat about this. Send me a DM. Reach out. Let me know. What are you trying to decide? What are you trying to decide about what you're attending? Let's talk about it. I'm happy to chat about this.

All right, my friends. So in closing here, big thinking is not about saying yes to every room. It's really about choosing the right rooms with the right people at the right time. If you want help building your own event decision filter or figuring out how to turn your events that you're already saying you're going to into paying clients and meaningful connections, let's talk.

This is the kind of work that we do when we do ongoing coaching. It's the kind of work that I do with my clients inside what I am now calling the Ascension Collective, inside my Runway to Freedom Mastermind. You need to consider whether you want to be inside that room, inside that coaching container, because we do have events. We hold a retreat twice a year in person. It's an event. Do you want to be in a room with other business owners that are going through the same things you are? Do you want to have support? Do you want to be seen and heard? Do you want some guidance?

That's the room or that's the event of the Ascension Collective figuratively. I'm saying it literally and figuratively because we have Zoom calls twice a month, where that's an event in a sense. Then we have in-person events, and deciding to be in a coaching container like the Ascension Collective is almost like you're saying yes to an event, an ongoing event.

So I invite you, number one, to reach out if you want help with that event decision filter. I invite you to come participate in my next activator, where we turn your vision into goals and into action steps. It gives you that boost. It's the first step in coaching. Then I invite you to come be with us inside the Ascension Collective, which is almost an ongoing year-long event of amazing people.

I'll be back next week with more amazing content. Thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you. I want to know that you are listening. So DM me, tell me what events you're attending this fall. Tell me what you're thinking about, and tell me how I can help. All right, my friends, keep thinking big. See you next week.

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